Seamless performance and immersive UX is most important for the competitive edge of progressive applications. Since 2015 PWAs have been most popular in the developer community, and the web environment is thriving with progressive websites built on reactive programming.
There are three major points to distinguish PWAs from regular websites – secure context, service workers API, and a web manifest to provide details about the application.
With these features, progressive applications have taken the performance and UX of regular websites to a new level. They are secure, fast, and available from all devices and browsers, can be accessed offline, and offer the feel and look of native applications.
There are different PWA frameworks that developers can use – they can choose to create a PWA from scratch using Angular.js, React.js, Vue.js, or use available tools to make the process simpler. Read on to find out the best PWA frameworks and tools to build progressive applications with minimum fuss.
PWA Frameworks and Libraries
If you are going to build a PWA from the ground up, these frameworks will simplify the process and provide plenty of resources to leverage.
Angular.js
Angular.js is one of the oldest frameworks which allows developers to create and maintain web infrastructures easily. It provides mature methodology, better plug-and-play components, faster application development, and ongoing support from Google.
Not all versions are suitable for PWAs, though – version 5 is the first one with embedded service workers and a dedicated script to create progressive applications.
You will also need to have a good level of coding skills and experience in TypeScript as this framework is rather advanced and far from user-friendly.
React.js
React.js is very similar to Angular.js – equally popular, with similar architecture, again based on JavaScript.
But unlike Angular.js, React is an open-source JavaScript library that can be used for building dynamic user interfaces. This means that it requires multiple integrations with additional tools to start building an app.
React.js offers a fast rendering process because of its virtual DOM, a pervasive ecosystem, and Facebook’s ongoing support. It can help developers reduce the hassle of setting up and configuring applications and building out PWAs faster.
Vue.js
Together with the above mentioned, Vue.js takes the top 3 in PWA frameworks for progressive apps development. It provides a dedicated PWA package that helps developers simplify the process.
Vue combines with other tools and libraries, has a simple structure and flexibility, fast server-side rendering, and well-detailed documentation. It can be used for small projects and MVPs but also for dynamic and complex applications.
Ionic
An open-source SDK that is good for PWAs and cross-platform applications. It is easier to learn and has a huge library of pre-built routing, unit tests, UI components, and modules developers can add native functionalities to PWAs and save some time and effort.
Keep in mind that the performance is not great since this framework renders the graphic element via a browser, so not good for apps that are heavy on media.
PWA Dev Tools
To simplify the processes and create PWAs faster, you can use one of these dev tools.
Webpack
A static module bundler that can be used for modern JavaScript apps. It allows developers to build and manage dependency graphs between different JavaScript assets such as CSS elements, fonts, stylesheets, images, etc. The downside includes steeper learning curves, painful source code, and unfriendly documentation.
SuperPWA
The easiest tool that can be used for converting a WordPress website into a progressive application. Once the plugin is installed, your users can receive push notifications and get the feeling of a native app. It is user-friendly and provides free UTM tracking to know how many visitors are using the PWA.
Lighthouse
A great analytics tool created by Google that will help you measure the SEO, performance, and accessibility of your PWA. It allows developers to see how good the PWA is performing and what bugs it has, and the recorded data can be used to improve the performance.
Lighthouse can be installed as a Chrome extension, automated through the command line, or run through Chrome DevTools.
